Assessment 1: Reflective Thinking and Writing

Instructions for the assessment

We would like you to reflect on your experience within your group in completing the exercise in your seminars on the analysis of the Junction Hotel: Initial Fact Finding report and presentation (from weeks 1 – 5). This is taken from your core textbook: Organisational Behaviour (King and Lawley 2019) and is found in the Ultra blackboard resources (week 1) for this module.  It will form part of the seminar and workshop sessions in weeks 1 - 5.

The main aim of this assessment is to identify one or two aspects about your contribution and performance in this group task which you would like to improve on in the future and to consider which part of the theory presented in weeks 1 – 5 helps you to best understand what happened and to plan how to make desired changes in the future.

We would like you to use the Gibb’s model (see details below - ‘Model to aid reflection’), to consider what you have learnt about your preferences and challenges in working in groups. We would like you to use one or two topics from the material presented in weeks 1 – 5 to explore a particular aspect you found challenging, for example, communication challenges, working with others in groups, multicultural elements or learning styles preferences.   You can choose which one or two aspects to focus on from the above list, depending on challenges you personally had.

You should complete a short reference list to cite the sources you have used to connect the theory with your personal experiences.

Assessment Criteria for Assessment One

We will assess the extent to which you have reflected on your personal experiences to understand and elaborate on concepts/theories presented.

This includes:

1. Your ability to write clearly, effectively and concisely and to use sources and references appropriately.

2. Your ability to use Gibb’s reflective model to explore your experiences in the seminar teams on this Junction Hotel task.

3. Your ability to draw on one or two particular aspects of the theory presented in weeks 1 – 5 to make sense of these experiences (ie learning styles, challenges of working in groups, working with different cultures, adapting to higher education, multicultural challenges.)

4. Your ability to document one or two areas of your performance and experience on this task that you would like to improve upon.

Assessment format:

The required format for the presentation of your assessment is as follows:

Front page to show: Assignment title, Module code/title, Seminar leader’s name, Due Date

You may find it helpful to read in addition to this guidance, the Blackboard document under ‘Assessment’ entitled ‘Reflective Thinking and Writing’. This was produced by the Student Study Support team and gives more general guidance on reflective writing including addressing some challenges to be overcome. The next few paragraphs below are taken from this source.

What is Reflection?

‘Consciously looking at and thinking about our experiences, actions, feelings and responses and then interpreting them, in order to learn from them’ (Boud et al, 1993).  We can do this by asking: What we did? How we did it? What we learnt from doing it?

Why Reflect?

· Explore and clarify your feelings, reactions and responses to issues;

· Explore situations from different perspectives;

· Look at how we can adapt to situations;

· Consider our strengths and weaknesses;

· Look at the relationship between theory and practice;

· Learn from experiences and actions (our own and other people’s);

Reflective Writing Styles

Uses first and third person: your experience = first person (I felt) and the academic material will use third person, for example, (Smith proposes that …’

It should weave together your experience and discussion of academic material and theory.

Model to aid Reflection

You must use this model to structure your work:

Gibbs Framework for Reflection (1988) (this is one of the most common frameworks in academic work)

Stage 1: Description of the event

Describe in detail the event you are reflecting on.

Include e.g. where were you; who else was there; why were you there; what were you doing; what were other people doing; what was the context of the event; what happened; what was your part in this; what parts did the other people play; what was the result.

Stage 2: Feelings and Thoughts (Self awareness)

At this stage, try to recall and explore those things that were going on inside your head. Include:

· What you were thinking about at the start?

· How did things make you feel?

· How did other people make you feel?

· How did you feel about the outcome of the event?

· What do you think about it now?

Stage 3: Evaluation

Try to evaluate or make a judgement about what has happened. Consider what was useful about the experience and what did or didn’t go so well (and why not)

Stage 4: Analysis

Break the event down into its component parts so they can be explored separately. You may need to ask more detailed questions about the answers to the last stage. Include:

· What went well?

· What did you do well?

· What did others do well?

· What went wrong or did not turn out how it should have done?

· In what way did you or others contribute to this?

Stage 5: Conclusion (Synthesis)

This differs from the evaluation stage in that now you have explored the issue from different angles and have a lot of information to base your judgement. It is here that you are likely to develop insight into you own and other people’s behaviour in terms of how they contributed to the outcome of the event. Remember the purpose of reflection is to learn from an experience. Without detailed analysis and honest exploration that occurs during all the previous stages, it is unlikely that all aspects of the event will be taken into account and therefore valuable opportunities for learning can be missed. During this stage you should ask yourself what you could have done differently.

Stage 6: Action Plan  

During this stage you should think yourself forward into encountering the event again and to plan what you would do – would you act differently or would you be likely to do the same?